The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
Top Garda called enquiry ‘grossly negligent’ in 1985
STATE papers published three years ago under the 30-yearrule show that the garda commissioner running the force at the time of the investigation had major reservations about the handling of the Kerry Babies murder case.
The 1985 State Papers included a 10 page briefing document - which contains details of an internal Garda enquiry into the case - provided to the cabinet by then Minister of Justice Michael Noonan ahead of the Dáil vote to establish the Kerry Babies Tribunal.
That enquiry, carried out by two Chief Superintendents, was launched by then Garda Commissioner Lawrence Wren, following the DPP’s decision to drop all charges against members of the Hayes family and subsequent publicity about the case.
Though the cabinet briefing document does not contain precise details of the garda report or the Commissioner’s personal assessment, it does contain a summary of the findings.
The document notes that Commissioner Wren appeared to have serious concerns about how the murder investigation had been handled.
The following are extracts taken from the briefing document presented by Minister Noonan on December 6, 1984.
The Commissioner concluded that, whatever the truth of allegations of the Hayes family, the conduct of the criminal investigation into the death of the Cahersiveen baby had been “grossly negligent” and he considered that some form of sworn enquiry was required “to establish what really happened.”
“To all intents and purposes active investigation of the case ceased once the charges had been preferred against the Hayes family, notwithstanding the finding of the second baby,” the briefing document says.
According to the cabinet briefing document the internal garda investigation had also found that “no serious effort was made to search the Hayes farm thoroughly” and that “no explanation has been given by gardaí as to why they persevered with the murder charge against Ms Hayes.”